Groups travel long distances for March for Life

Kurt Jensen|
Catholic News Service

1/19/17

Pro-life advocates walk past the Supreme Court building during the March for Life in Washington Jan. 22, 2016. This year's march is set for Jan. 27, starting near the Washington Monument. Gregory A. Shemitz | CNS

WASHINGTON — Participants in the annual March for Life always
have two identical memories: the brisk January chill on the streets of the
nation's capital, and the long bus ride.

For some, such as the 600 marchers affiliated with the University
of Mary in Bismarck, N.D., the march will be a culmination of successful
organizing and youthful enthusiasm in addition to substantial outside
donations.

The University of Mary group is making a nonstop trek. And they
will be proud to do so, because march organizers selected them to hold the
banner and lead the parade in their orange and blue knit caps.

"I think they noted the faithfulness of the University of
Mary pro-life movement and our effort to support that," said Anne Dziak, a
Chicago native and recent graduate of the university who now works as an
admissions counselor at the school.

Last year, the university sent 100 marchers. This year, the
number swelled with additions of pro-life groups from Bismarck-area high
schools and groups from Fargo and Minnesota. It will take 14 buses to hold them
all.

This will be Dziak's 12th march and the seventh time the
university, which has an enrollment of about 3,100, has sent a group.

"We have a lot of practice staying warm," she said. The
caravan will leave the morning of Jan. 25 and ride through the night to arrive
in Washington at 3 p.m. the following day, giving them just one overnight stay.

She concedes that nonstop trips aren't for everyone, but said
there are benefits.

"It's a good opportunity to allow the students to grow to
know each other and make it more of a pilgrimage for us," Dziak said. She
advised students "to take it all in. Some of the best conversations I've
had are on the bus at 2 or 3 a.m."

Other groups though, struggle with raising money for just a
single busload of about 50.

Pro-life groups and Catholic parishes have organized the bus
journeys for most of the of the 44 years of the march, which marks the 1973
U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade that
legalized abortion virtually on demand.

This year's rally Jan. 27 on the Washington Monument grounds
followed by a march up Constitution Avenue to the U.S. Supreme Court will be
the first for St. Clair County Right to Life in Fort Gratiot, Mich.

"We hope for a full bus, which would be 55 people, but are
expecting about 45," said Roger Thomas, the organization's treasurer.
"This is the first year we've actually run the bus, so we're still
learning. A party from a neighboring county has been running a bus every
January for years, and that seems to be the way it works, at least here in
Michigan. Parishes, Knights of Columbus councils, right-to-life groups and such
will sponsor the buses and word gets around that the bus is going, so it fills
up."

Right to Life of Michigan in the past sponsored buses from venues
around the state, but when it ran short of funds, "the initiative was
thrown back on the local affiliates," Thomas said. That's when he learned
of the many challenges involved in getting even a single busload of marchers.

"The vendors with whom you contract need payment, or firm
commitment, by a certain date. But that date is usually well before the trip
itself, sometimes as much as six weeks. We're finding out that a good number of
people don't even think about registering for a bus until after
Christmas," Thomas explained.

So if the sponsoring organization is counting on registration
fees, "they won't have enough in time, and will have to cancel, just
before people start calling to ask, 'Are you still sending a bus?'"

For this year's march, St. Clair County Right to Life raised
enough money to fund the full trip in advance and do not have to worry about
canceling the trip unless the weather conditions are too severe — like last
January, when a snowstorm stranded dozens of buses on the Pennsylvania Turnpike
on the return journey.

The Venango County chapter of Pennsylvanians for Human Life,
based in Oil City, faces a similar struggle.

"We have been taking a bus from the Oil City area for 36
years," said Judy Anderton, who heads the chapter. "We used to fill
two buses, which included students from Venango Catholic High School. We are
down to one bus and it is getting harder to fill."

The cost of the bus, she noted, "has gone from under $1,000
to about $2,600 this year, and it is getting harder to cover the cost with low
passenger numbers. This may have to be our last bus."